Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Model Lesson Plan: Family Law Child Custody, Visitation & Support
Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes
GOALS
Students will understand the family law policy considerations underlying child
custody/visitation/support
Students will understand how custody/visitation schedules are determined
Students will understand how child support is calculated
OBJECTIVES
A. Knowledge Objectives: As a result of this class, students will be better able to:
1. Understand federal and state child custody/visitation/support laws
2. Understand the entitlements and obligations that flow from parentage
B. Skills Objectives: As a result of this class, students will be better able to:
1. Spot family law issues
2. Apply child custody/support/visitation laws
C. Attitude Objectives: As a result of this lesson, students will feel:
1. Confident about their understanding of what rights/obligations flow from
parentage
2. Comfortable seeking court intervention if their rights are violated or to hold
their co-parent to their obligations
CLASSROOM METHODS
A.
After students have had a few minutes to write down their thoughts, ask
for volunteers to share their ideas and explain why they think something
is important to consider.
2. Go through Pt. I of the PowerPoint covering the following material; the
notes below correspond with each slide in the PowerPoint. Note: the
information in this PowerPoint is from: Family Law Examples and
Explanations - 3rd Edition by Robert Oliphant and Nancy Ver Steegh - Aspen
Publishers.
i.
the Supreme Ct struck down a WA state statute that granted visitation for
grandparents.
Standards for Denying or Limiting Visitation: Because parents have a
constitutional right to have contact with their children, courts will ONLY deny
visitation in the most egregious circumstances.
The burden is on the parent contesting the visitation to show that the child will be
seriously endangered.
Note that even the permissible factors for consideration often result in limitations
on visitation-such as supervised custodial time or exchange of child thru an
intermediary- but not necessarily an outright denial of visitation.
B.
2. Pt. II of the PowerPoint consists of a series scenarios; post the scenarios one
by one. Give the students a few minutes to discuss the issues in the scenario
and then reconvene as a class and have students share what they discussed
in their groups. The issues in each scenario are:
Scenario #1: There is definitely an issue here! As we discussed,
maternal/paternal presumptions are inappropriate considerations for
determining custody.
Scenario #2: No, Kail cannot legally withhold visitation just because Joe is
failing to fulfil his support obligations. There is alternative recourse for Kail,
such as seeking court enforcement or some of the other penalties we
discussed for failure to make child support payments.
Scenario #3: Beyonce must pay Jay-Z $400K monthly. Beyonce owes $1.2
million and Jay-Z owes $800K. Since it doesnt make sense for them to
exchange checks, Bey just pays Jay-Z the difference.
Scenario #4: Probably not. If a parent has sole custody of a child, he or she
may generally relocate to another state with that child (remember, people
have a constitutional right to travel between the states).
Scenario #5: Courts have recognized that it is in childrens best interests to
have stability; thus, maintaining the status quo is usually favored. Thus, since
the kids have been living primarily with Angelina, a court would likely be
hesitant to disrupt this arrangement and grant sole custody of the kids for
Brad. Courts have also recognized keeping siblings together often goes
towards childrens best interests. Thus, Brads proposal of splitting the kids
down the middle is misguided and unlikely to be adopted by a court.
Scenario #6: Yes, Victoria can ask the court to impute Davids salary for
purposes of calculating child support. Because David is voluntarily
unemployed in a bad-faith effort to avoid his child support obligations, the
court will probably not hesitate to impute his former income onto him.
C.
2. Tell the students that you will be reading out loud trivia questions; as you ask each
question they should write their answer next to the corresponding number. Read each
question aloud at least twice; you can repeat questions as necessary.
3. After you have gone through and read all of the questions and students have had an
opportunity to fill in their answers, go through each of the questions as a class. For
example, re-read the first question and have each of the teams say their answer. After all of
the teams have said what their answers are, tell students what the correct answer is. Have
the students grade their own quizzes.
4. At the end of the game, the team with the most correct answers gets a small price
EVALUATION
A. Student participation in small group discussions of scenarios
B. Student participation in trivia game
Child Custody/Visitation/Support
Trivia Questions & Answers
1. True or false legal custody refers to a parents authority to make major decisions
on behalf of the child. (TRUE)
2. When determining custody, courts are most interested in _____________________ . (Best
Interests of the Child)
3. Name two appropriate considerations for determining the best interests of the child.
(Some acceptable responses: keeping biological siblings together, parents
preferences, childs preferences, status quo, natural parent presumption,
childs adjustment to school/home/community, health of the individuals
involved)
4. Name two inappropriate considerations for determining the best interests of the
child. (Some acceptable responses: paternal/maternal presumption,
cohabitation, careers, gay and lesbian parents, parental conduct not affecting
child)
5. True or false once courts enter into a custody agreement, they are usually hesitant
to change it unless there is a substantial change in circumstances (True)
6. True or false a parent with sole physical custody can generally move out of state
with the child if he or she wishes to do so. (TRUE)
7. True or false - Grandparents and stepparents are entitled to visitation. (FALSE; see
Troxel v. Granville).
8. True or false a parent who is unemployed is exempt from child support obligations
(FALSE; courts may impute income)
9. True or false willful failure to pay child support is a federal crime (True)
10. Parents are generally entitled to visitation unless the court finds, after a hearing,
that _____________________________ (visitation would endanger seriously the childs
physical, mental, moral or emotional health)